SAT

Top SAT Writing Tips to Help Boost Your Score

The SAT Writing section can seem like a really daunting thing, forcing you to call upon your middle school grammar days. Here are some quick tips to help you ace the Writing section:

Know Your Subject-Verb Agreement

It seems like such an easy task, but you would be surprised how often this concept is tested, and how frequently top students get tripped up on it. It comes down to one very simple rule: singular subject means single verb, plural subjects means plural verb. Anytime you identify a question that’s testing this, draw a “P” or “S” under the subject, so you can quickly identify the corresponding answer choice.

Learn How to Be Concise

Another trap that many students fall into is not knowing not how to shed deadweight. You will often run into questions that ask you to trim down the existing sentence into a more concise version. When faced with these questions, read the full sentence out to yourself and ask: “what is the point of this sentence?” Then go through the answer choices and pick the one that captures the full meaning of the original sentence in the most concise manner.

Know How to Catch Faulty Modifiers

Faulty modifiers show up without fail time and time again on the SAT Writing section. They can be tricky, so it’s important that you give yourself some time to read through the question. Here’s your quick and dirty trick: if a modifying phrase is not directly followed by a noun, take a second look. More likely than not, there will be something for you to correct here. There is a definite pattern to how to resolve these sorts of questions, so it’s in your best interest to spend some time practicing with them so you can ace them on test day.